What is a primary characteristic of lipreading?

Lipreading is fundamentally a visual communication skill that involves interpreting speech through the observation of lip movements, facial expressions, and other non-verbal cues. This method does not involve any auditory input; rather, it focuses entirely on the visual aspects of speech production. Individuals who lipread are trained to recognize words and phonemes by looking at the speaker's mouth movements, helping them to understand what is being said in the absence of sound.

By emphasizing the visual signals, lipreading allows individuals who are hard of hearing or deaf to access spoken language in a different way, making it an essential skill for effective communication in various contexts. This characteristic sets it apart from other forms of communication that might combine both auditory and visual inputs or rely on auditory signals alone.